Friday, March 21, 2008

In my humble opinion, the Milwaukee Brewers should begin the season starting Tony Gwynn Jr. in centerfield and should also break camp with Manny Parra and Carlos Villanueva on their pitching staff.

Gwynn has had a great camp hitting over .375, has run the bases well and is playing solid defensively. Tony is a great bunter and deserves the shot to hold down centerfield until Mike Cameron finshes serving his suspension.

Prior to yesterday's poor performance, Parra has pitched very well. If Capuano gets bad news from his recent MRI and can't start the season with the club and with Randy Choate's broken hand taking him out the picture, it looks like the Crew is going to need another lefty on its staff.

Villanueva has been very effective this spring and is ready to fill a starting rotation spot and/or log significant innings in the pen.

These three youngsters should be in brewtown for the Milwaukee Brewer's Opener on 4/4.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Let me first say, I write as a guest to this wonderful Milwaukee Brewers blog. A female guest writer. One who may have a little different perspective as we all prepare for the Crew's home opener at Miller Park.

There have many a Spring day in Milwaukee when I make the formal switch from Green Bay Packers gear to Milwaukee Brewers old-school ball-in-glove gear and head out for a solid day of baseball, beer and brats only to do too much, too fast. With age, comes experience. Pace yourself Brewers fans.

The Brewers take on the Giants at 1:05 Friday, April 4th. That allows for some nice morning beverages and a easy lunchtime transition to ball park beer drinking. A Brewers win would be icing on the cake to a day which formally marks the beginning of Spring in Milwaukee. The Brewers have won four Opening Day games in a row. Let's have 2008, make it five in a row! I would suspect with the crazy demand for Brewers tickets these days, the home field advantage will be obvious.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Coming into Spring Training the Brewer faithful have been contemplating what the opening day batting order will look like. It has been common knowlege that Rickie Weeks will lead off and the pitcher and Jason Kendall will occupy the 8th and 9th spots. Yesterday, in a little bit of a surprise move, announced that Prince Fielder will bat third and Ryan Braun will bat cleanup.

Last year Yost experimented with this switch. I remember the conversations and animated exchanges I had with a number of my friends. Personally, I didn't really like the move. Braun's numbers batting third were filthy. His numbers were very average at the cleanup spot.I can appreciate Yost's argument about protecting Prince and not letting opposing pitchers pitch around him. But.........why not have confidence in Hart, Hardy or Hall batting fifth and see if one of these guys can get the job done. It's like Yost is already conceding that no one other than Braun can protect Fielder. Isn't this kind of a self-defeating prophecy?

I'm not trying to be negative here. I like the Crew and I thing we have a great deal of good options. Where does Hardy bat ? I'd love to see him bat 2nd.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

The Milwaukee Brewers have the looks of a team that has a lot of young talent and depth. Take a look at their position players..... Prince Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Hall, Braun, Hart make up the their young nucleus and Cameron and Kendall bring solid, veteran play up the middle. The Crew also has a mix of youth and experienced players on the bench with Gwynn, Kapler, Gross, Counsell and Dillon.

The Brewers' pitching staff really has depth. So much so in fact that Ned Yost has some tough decisions to make. Not a bad position to be in, folks. Sheets, Suppan, Capuano, Gallardo, Villanueva, Parra, Bush and Vargas are battling for the five starting rotation spots. Eight possible candidates. Not many teams have the Brewer's mix of youth and veterans and shear number of pitchers competing for these spots.

What is Yost going to do? I'd love to see Sheets, Suppan, Gallardo, Capuano and Manny Parra break camp as the starters with Villanueva the first option to step in if anyone gets hurt or falters. Bush and Vargas should start the year in the pen. Who knows..... Melvin and company might consider moving one of these pitchers for a position player or prospect.

I've never been this excited about the Brewers chances this early in Spring Training. Normally there are more questions as to who is going to fill what position. Barring any major injury(ies), this team should compete at a high level out of the gate and should be right there vying for the top spot in the NL Central.

Get ready for Brewers opening day, folks!! From what I hear, opening day tickets are tough to come by. I stumbled upon this site if you're looking for Milwaukee Brewers Tickets.